O'LooNEY — On an old Irish MS. found in Co. Clare. 219 



It was written a.d. 1709, and possibly from Keating's original, by- 

 Andrew Mac Curtin, one of the best Irish writers in succession to Dr. 

 Keating himself of whom we have any knowledge. He was a native 

 of "West Clare, and Ollamh and historian to the O'Briens of Thomond, 

 and author of a history of the Dalcassians and their country, known as 

 Mac Curtin's "Book of Munster." There can be no doubt as to the 

 identity of the author and transcriber, as their names are distinctly 

 set down in Mac Curtin's original and well-known hand in several 

 places in the manuscript, and notably at pages 203 and 206, and again 

 at page 248. The present exhibit is but a fragment of what appears 

 to have been originally a very large manuscript! It contains 267 

 written folio pages, and the contents are as follows : — 



1. e-ocA.i|A ■pciA.c x^n A.ic]r]Airin. — "Key to the Shield of the 



Mass." — The first nine chapters of Keating's Treatise on the 

 Mass, which terminates abruptly with page 40 ; after which 

 there is a chasm. 



2. U]Ai biojt jA-oice ^n b^if. — "Three Wounding Shafts of 



Death." — This piece is defective at commencement, wanting 

 the title and about forty lines of the introduction, which 

 must have disappeared with the missing folios above-men- 

 tioned. After this, however, the greater part of the text 

 remains intact, and continues complete to the end. It ends 

 on page 203, where the writer gives what the ancient sages 

 regarded as the three essentials of the work, namely, the per- 

 son, place, and time of the writing. The person or writer was 

 Andrew Mac Curtin ; the place of it was Dun Ogain, in the 

 county of Clare ; and the time of the writing was a.d. 1709. 

 And the following memorandum is added: — " Scriptus p 

 Andream Curtin de Dunogane in Comitatu Clare Anno Do- 

 mine M. D. ccix." 



3. A^ ]"o lomAgAtbm^ ^n MimA. aju^' isw cuipp le ceite a]a 



tiA- cup A.ri-eA.56.p bei-i' ^n u jx)Ap ceA^-oriA. mt>.\\ esx:k isw 

 "ooccuip oip"6eA-|Ac eAjriAToe .i. SeAcpum Keicing. — 

 " Here follows the dialogue of the soul and the body with each 

 other, written by the noble and erudite author, namely, the 

 illustrious and eminently learned Dr. Geoffrey Keating." 

 There are many pieces in prose and verse purporting to treat 

 on this subject, but I am not aware that there is any other 

 copy of this Treatise in any of the manuscript collections in 

 this country. 



